Research on a novel robotic arm with non-backlash driving for industrial applications

Applications of industrial robots in the field of manufacturing have increased over the years due to their advantages of large workspace, good flexibility and low cost. However, the stiffness of industrial robots is weak which affects manufacturing precision seriously as well as transmission backlash. This paper presents a non-backlash robotic arm, the structure of the robot and how to eliminate the transmission backlash of the robot are introduced. Kinematic and dynamic models of the robot are established as well as the directional stiffness analysis based on strain energy method and Castigliano's theorem. The results show that the stiffness of the proposed robot is better than that of the industrial robot, and the natural frequency is close to the industrial robot, which proves that the robotic arm can be used for industrial applications like an industrial robot.